Reduced Beautiful 1972 Schwinn Paramount Purchased New Personally in 1972

[GiovanniLiCalsi]

I had a conversation with a Colnago expert, several days ago. He said the Campagnolo rear derailleurs were used on bicycles, the same year of the patent date.
My 1981 Colnago Superissimo is the same year as it’s rear Campagnolo derailleur.
Also spoke with Richard Schwinn, a week ago about my 1976 Schwinn Paramount Tandem and even said it can be perplexing.
It’s serial number denotes 1976, but the factory parts denote 1975. It has AT cranksets, instead of Campagnolo cranksets. It’s also a 15-speed, instead of a 10-speed. Richard also said that it could have been a special order, with those options.

 

[ridingtoy]

Your purchase story from 1972 reminds me of mine when I bought a brand new Schwinn Suburban 10 speed back in June 1974 as a young lad of 24. The price was around $107 plus tax. The bike store on Falls Road in Baltimore was a pretty good size and I remember all the beautiful Schwinn bicycle models lined up on display. It was tough to make a selection with all those goodies to choose from. I tried it out on the C&O Canal towpath west of Washington DC where I found out skinny tire bikes and gravel paths don't work too well together. I still have my 1974 Suburban, which also has dry rotted 27" gumwall tires. Other than the tires, it still is in very good condition and will definitely outlive me.

Dave

 

[At0m1c]

Sorry to say your time capsule story has some holes in it. The issue is the year is probably correct for the frame, however, this frame has been repainted. Every Schwinn Paramount I have ever seen of that era, including mine, has chrome head tube lugs, fork ends, and chain and seat stays ends and dropouts. It is also shown in catalogues of 1972 to be so. Also, the decals are incomplete or in the wrong place on the down tube. There should be a white background decal with the Olympic rings and the Schwinn logo in the middle and the Olympic color stripes as a border top and bottom. The Reynolds 531 sticker should be up top of the seat tube, near the seat, not on the bottom, near the cranks/bottom bracket. The chrome was probably pitted or rusted and couldn't be polished out so the whole frame was painted over, chrome and all. I don't mean to burst your bubble but ALL Paramounts of this year were decorated the same way without many, if any, exceptions. If the serial number reads as you say, it is that year, however, the bike has been re-built and repainted, possibly using close to, but not exact year period correct components. This is not debatable. If you look up the original specs and catalogues, it confirms everything I have said here. You can even contact Waterford Cycles, owned by Richard Schwinn, and have a provenance report done using the serial number to determine the actual sales date, where it was sold, and the original color, as well as, any special order options. The silver mist paint was also not offered standard that year, it had to be ordered that way. For whatever reason Schwinn skipped a year of offering that color. My '72 was special ordered with the silver mist paint, according to the provenance report.